The txt versions don't scroll across the whole screen (if this makes sense) and thus uses more paper.
Ah, I see. Actually there's a very good reason why that's so...I just can't for the life of me remember what it is.
I recall that, back in the day, it was done deliberately to solve a problem several readers had with the files. What that problem was however...you got me there. Lost in the mists of time...
Isn't it possible to save the story file to your pc, change the margins, and then print it out, if you want to use less paper? Can't say I've ever given it a try myself, but on the face of it, I can't see why you couldn't.
Incidentally, one of the sites I post to, Twisting The Hellmouth, keeps the documents as HTML but has the option to read them as plain text - no idea how they do it, but that site has several thousand stories archived and the conversion is done on the fly, not by keeping two versions of the story, so it's obviously possible.
I do know that at one point, Lauren was experimenting with a program that would produce a page on the Archive where readers could just click on either option - HTML or Plain Text - as suited how they wanted it formatted for reading. I got the impression though that there were operational glitches that couldn't be ironed out. Or that Lauren is still working on trying to make it work for the Archive. It's certainly another idea worth pursuing though.
I'm still fascinated by how evenly the vote is working out so far. Back up to 50/50 as I post. Well, here anyway. Over on the Archive the vote is going more pro-text. Always in the past when we asked this one the vote was massively for text.
LabRat
